


A New Little Soldier

by Shasta



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Fluff, Or at least ends with fluff, Post-KotFE, Pre-KOTET, Uncle-Niece Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-02 01:12:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15785907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shasta/pseuds/Shasta
Summary: Finding out you are now responsible for a child is hard enough. But when you are an Ex-Imperial Agent and fighting an Empire with ships that could destroy a fleet with one shot, a child is a huge problem.(Pretty much A Chiss Intelligence Agent is now stuck with a child he really doesn't want to deal with.)





	A New Little Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> A quick One-shot with my Chiss Imperial Agent, Okeld meeting his niece for the first time. I might write more of these two but we will see. Just a cute fluffy story. I hope you enjoy. Not beta'd.

To say he was surprised to receive this message was an understatement.

With a quick swipe of his finger on the datapad, the holo image disappeared. His mind was reeling. He had no idea his brother had married, let alone had a child and to hear of his brother’s passing at the hands of the Eternal Army drove the news home. He needed to be alone.

He left the datapad on a nearby table in the common area and headed to his personal quarters. It was password protected and he knew no one would dare touch his possessions so he had no concerns about it. He honestly just needed to get away from the damned machine that sent him into his current downward spiral. To anyone he passed in the halls of Odessen, he appeared no different than before. Okeld kept his stoic expression, looking straight ahead and not sparing a single glance to those he passed.

Lana was ahead of him, speaking to the Commander of course. Quickly, Okeld back tracked and took another route to his quarters before deciding last minute to head to his ship instead. He knew she would use whatever force tricks she had to know the inner turmoil going on in his head. He didn’t want to have that conversation. His ship would have been eerily quiet to most, but to the Chiss, it was home. He remembered the years he spent with his crew, the months of travel from one planet to another in search of his next target. He let a small smile grace his lips before heading to the cockpit. The instruments that once hummed with life were silent and cold. He ran his hand over the offline nav computer before sitting in the Pilots chair.

Okeld didn’t know how long he sat in the chair, his thoughts swirling, before finally closing his eyes. He leaned his head back and breathed deeply. He had received the message last week but hadn’t had the chance to read it until today. That had been a mistake. By this time tomorrow he would have a child in his care. His niece, to be precise. He sighed and leaned forward, holding his head in his hands. Of all the trials in his life, of all the missions that he faced head on with no fear, this mission seemed too great to bear. 

She was three years old, spirited and full of self-confidence, at least according to the message he received. He hadn’t had contact with the ascendancy for years and he wanted to keep it that way. They were too quick to throw him away as defective for him to be blindingly loyal to them like every other force forsaken Chiss out there. He knew the Alliance had contact with the Ascendancy but he always let those brief and far between communications be handled by Lana or Theron. Thankfully the child would be brought to him via exchange into Imperial hands. How they had found him was a mystery but he had a feeling it was Theron’s doing. Theron could be a gifted spy, but for certain matters, sometimes spoke too much. He was dead by most standards, but even death wasn’t enough to keep him from his people. 

Another problem would be Kaliyo. The anarchist would sneer at the thought of a child on base, let alone a child that would forever be attached to her husband. He supposed that so long as Kaliyo at least tolerated her, it would work out. Okeld quickly made a mental inventory of what he would need. The child could stay in his quarters until he found a better situation for it. It was a 3 year old and Chiss aged at an accelerated rate so there were no special dietary needs. He could find a suitable caregiver for it as well. He was much too busy with the Alliance to have to baby sit an unruly child. He was sure there was someone on the base that would want to be a parent, even though they were in the middle of a war. Why the Ascendancy didn’t just find another home for it was astounding him.

He shook his head and sighed. He would make some calls today to find said caregiver. It was going to be a long night.

 

He wouldn’t say he was pacing, or that he was nervous. He was simply passing the time by moving around the platform. He made it a point to ignore the chuckles from Vette and the smiles from Lana. The transport would be there shortly. There was a Miralian medic who was thrilled at the possibility of not only taking care of an orphaned child, but a Chiss one at that. Chiss were such a secretive species that not much was truly known about them which made Okeld wonder briefly if the child was going to become a social experiment more than anything else. He couldn’t dwell on that. It wasn’t his child, it wasn’t his responsibility. So long as it was alive and cared for, he supposed that would do right by his brother. 

A low humming was the first sign that the small transport vessel was approaching. It was Imperial in design, which he was thankful for. The Chiss stood at attention as the ship landed and briefly secured itself to the landing platform. The large door dropped down with a hiss of depressurization.

Two Imperial soldiers flanked an officer of the Chiss Ascendancy. In that officer’s arms was the child. After Okeld saw the child, everything seemed to pass in a blur. He had spoken to her briefly but he wasn’t sure what was said. He learned the child’s mother had died in labor and that Odari, Okeld’s brother, had been killed during a space dogfight while protecting Imperial allies. Odari had requested Okeld to care for the child should he perish almost as if he knew his brother was alive out there. The child was now Okeld’s responsibility. 

With that, the officer turned and walked back to the ship. As the vessel lifted off, Okeld looked down at the child. It looked like a six year old by human standards and was staring at him with narrowed eyes. It-she, he corrected himself, looked so much like Odari that for a moment flashes of his childhood and academy days flooded his mind. She had shoulder length black hair that framed her light blue face with the slightest waves, and had an aura of someone far beyond her years, even by Chiss standards.

It was only when she spoke that he snapped out of his thoughts. She spoke in perfect Cheunh, “What’s wrong with your eye?”

He sighed deeply and narrowed his eyes at the child. Clearly, they had some manners to work on and she would need to learn Basic. He spoke in Cheunh.

“I had an injury a long time ago that blinded me in one eye. You should learn to hold your tongue and not speak unless spoken to.”

She pouted and you could hear the Twi’Lek woman in the background cooing over the child. “Why are you so mean?”

“I am not _mean_. I am disciplining your actions.”

“You didn’t even ask my name and you are being mean.”

“I will not argue with a child. I am your superior in both age and rank. You will listen to me when I speak and you will not speak unless spoken to. Do I make myself clear?”

The young girl did nothing but cross her arms and glare at the man towering over her. He glared back at her and the child didn’t falter, holding her ground. In a way, he respected her courage, but right now, it was more annoying than anything else. It seems his brother had not taught her manners.

“What is your name?” he asked quietly, trying to rein in his own temper.

“Rist’ori’ienne. My papa called me Torri.”

“Well that is your core name so I would assume he would. Do you know why you are here?”

With that, she seemed to shrink a little. She uncrossed her arms and began messing with her fingernails while looking away. “My Papa is gone. They told me I would go with Papa’s brother.” She looked up at him again, her red eyes brimming with tears. “Are you him? Papa’s brother? They said he would take care of me.”

Something in Okeld’s resolve seemed to break the longer the child spoke. He did have empathy and he did feel for the child’s situation, but he could not care for her. She would be better off with the medic woman. He shook his head. “I am Selo’kel’diaba. I am your father’s brother. As for caring for-“

“Can I call you Okeld?” Torri interrupted. She put her hands over her mouth. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to talk.”

He let the corner of his mouth lift up slightly at that. “I…Suppose you can call me that.”

“Are we gonna fight bad guys together? Or fly ships? I hope we get to fly ships…” Torri continued to talk endlessly about everything she was excited to do and see here on Odessen. She had even begun using hand gestures and spin in circles. Okeld glanced back at Lana and Vette, both were smiling fondly at the pair. He looked back at Torri once she stopped talking, seeing her looking at him with an unreadable expression.

“So you are gonna be my new Papa? I mean not like my real Papa was…But, like that?”

Okeld blinked at the child before him. Every logical part of his mind was telling him that he needed to introduce her to the medic before she got too attached. Every part of him was telling himself he wasn’t falling for her charms. He glanced back at the two women who were watching from a respectful distance. Vette was nodding her head enthusiastically and Lana was smiling calmly at him, a knowing look in her eye.

Okeld sighed and kneeled down, looking Torri in the eye. He shouldn’t be doing this, but with everything he had lost with this war and even before that, he knew he had to for once fight for something he deserved. “If you want me to be your papa…Then I’ll try my hardest to be that for you.”

Torri smiled and launched herself onto Okeld’s neck. He really would need to teach her manners…


End file.
